


No Fairy Dust, No Magic Words

by lodessa



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-21
Updated: 2007-02-21
Packaged: 2017-11-16 07:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/pseuds/lodessa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith Mars is outed from office and suddenly Lamb is supposed to have all the answers. People want miracles, and they want them from him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Fairy Dust, No Magic Words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novin_ha](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=novin_ha).



Keith Mars is outed from office and suddenly Lamb is supposed to have all the answers. People want miracles, and they want them from him. He's the sheriff isn't he? Lamb feels like a little boy, playing dress-up in his father's clothes. There's no room for honesty though, and he wants to be the hero every bit as much as people want him to be one. So he tries to think of what someone who knows might says, and he swaggers more then necessary and it seems like fortune smiles on him; because, the Kane girl's killer drops right in to his lap and he soon discovers that no one else wants to admit they don't know what to do either. So he practices an arrogant smirk, takes long lunches, and repeats the town wide mythology that Keith Mars was off his rocker.

Things are going pretty well until one Sunday morning Veronica Mars shows up in his office, make-up smeared and spirit crushed. She gives him that look he's almost gotten used to coming for spoiled middle aged citizens, full of unreasonable expectations. They want miracles. Now, Veronica Mars wants one too, as she looks across the table from him and says that she's been raped. What she wants, of course, is not to have been raped. What she wants is her mommy back, and her best friend un-murdered. She wants him to send her back to Wonderland, and out of this hell hole they call Southern California. Lamb wants out too. But he can't turn back time, can't change the rules the world operates on. 

He can't lie to Veronica Mars either. Little girl grew up in this office, knows what it can and can not do. He can't fill her head with false assurances, act like he's going to bring that asshole to justice. There is little Lamb can do for anyone, even though he is sheriff now. So he gives her a dose of hard cold truth. The wizard can't give you anything you don't already have. He is merely the man hiding behind the curtain. She hates him for that.

Go ask the wizard for some answers; Lamb sure as hell doesn't have any.

Veronica gets tough but she doesn't just leave Lamb alone. She's always there, and every time she is he's being accused of letting her rape go unpunished, even though she never mentions it again. Life is cold and hard and Veronica Mars cuts like fire. She's everywhere, all the time. She's between him and sinking completely into the apathy of pretending to do his job in order to escape his own clueless state. They both are, father and daughter. Keith's initially friendly offers for help, Lamb shoves aside like an insult. By the time he's desperate for a hand, the mentor has turned into the enemy.

And now this rape investigation. Each call brings to mind Veronica's smeared eyeliner and broken innocence. He makes Sacks take the first few, but they keep coming and it seems like ignoring them will not make them go away any more than it will her. He goes to this next one, finds her there in the room and it's like he's having a bizarre nightmare until she points elsewhere. Another blonde little broken bird, crying as it lies on the ground. It's mother won't have anything to do with it once you touch it, but it's never going to make it back to the nest alone.

So he smirks and is snide and insulting. Better they think he's a jerk than incompetent. Lamb can be anything but not good enough. Then his father might be right, and Lamb would give anything to keep his father from winning. Years of torture that didn't leave the smallest mark on his body, provide motivation for hatred on the inside. He hates the Mars family most when they help him out. Needing help is weakness of character. That's what he'd written 1000 times before he was allowed to have any supper. So it's easier when they dismiss him, expect nothing, and he can at least not fail to meet the lowest denominator. This girl is bawling her eyes out, and Veronica expects Lamb to fail her. 

The new one still expects miracles, wants to go back to Kansas.


End file.
